North Carolina Symphony Music Director Grant Llewellyn and Sandi Macdonald, president of the North Carolina Symphony today announced programming for its 2014/15 season, the orchestra’s 82nd season and Grant Llewellyn’s 11th season as Music Director. Next season, Music Director Llewellyn will lead 13 weeks of concerts.

Music Director Grant Llewellyn has programmed a season that features the superb talents of the musicians of the North Carolina Symphony, along with programming in 2014/15 that combines a glorious thread of American music, some of the most beloved works in the classical repertoire, and collaborations with some of the world’s most talented composers and artists.

“I feel that the orchestra is growing in all ways – week on week, year on year,” said Llewellyn. “With the caliber of guest artists, new commissions, and of course the wonderful musicians of the North Carolina Symphony, I feel that we are on an amazing trajectory.”

The season opens in September 2014, with performances that feature musical legend and North Carolina resident Branford Marsalis. Other season highlights include Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3, Handel’s Messiah, and Copland’s Appalachian Spring. The season finale will take place in May 2015, with a semi-staged production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, performed in partnership with PlayMakers Repertory Company.

Following a highly successful collaboration in a 2010 production of Amadeus, the North Carolina Symphony will partner once again with PlayMakers Repertory Company in a new production of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. These performances will serve as the finale to the 2014/15 season.

Musical sources for these performances will include the sublime incidental music by Mendelssohn as well as the music of Erich Korngold which was written for the silver screen version by the great film director Max Reinhardt in 1935. Musical selections will be quilted together by Grant Llewellyn and integrated seamlessly into the action of the play.

In November, the orchestra will perform “Music Unwound: Copland in Mexico,” a national collaboration funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The project explores, in the words of creator Joseph Horowitz, “the ways that culture has helped Americans to understand and define themselves.”

Building upon the success of 2012’s “Dvorák & America,” the North Carolina Symphony again turns its attention to the “Music Unwound” program, which showcases Copland’s transformative experiences in Mexico, as evidenced by his Buckaroo Holiday and El Salón México. Concerts will feature the North Carolina Symphony and narration, under the direction of Grant Llewellyn.

World Premieres of Works by Judd Greenstein and Sarah Kirkland Snider

The 2014/15 season will include two commissions and world premiere performances by nationally-renowned composers. Judd Greenstein’s orchestration of his virtuoso chamber work Change will be premiered in February 2015, and Sarah Kirkland Snider’s new work will premiere in April 2015.

Judd Greenstein is a composer of structurally complex, viscerally engaging works for varied instrumentation. Greenstein has seen considerable national success as a composer, having been commissioned by such institutions as Carnegie Hall and the Minnesota Orchestra. In addition to his work as a composer, he is active as a promoter of new music in New York, where he is curator of the Ecstatic Music Festival at Merkin Hall, and around the country. His work “Change,” originally composed for a chamber ensemble is being re-orchestrated for a full symphony orchestra in order to introduce North Carolina Symphony audiences to a work that compelled Boston Globe reviewer Josh Shea upon hearing the piece to say that he was tempted to use the word “masterpiece.”

Sarah Kirkland Snider’s ties to North Carolina are profound: her family’s historic residence is in Salisbury, and her new creation will draw on her North Carolina roots for inspiration. Time Out New York calls Snider “among the brightest lights to emerge in recent seasons.” Snider writes music of direct expression and vivid narrative that has been hailed as “rapturous” (The New York Times) and “haunting” (The Los Angeles Times). With an ear for the poetic and a careful attention to detail, Snider’s music draws upon a variety of influences to prioritize nuanced and immersive storytelling.

The Symphony will also be performing recent works by composers Timo Andres, Derek Bermel, Mason Bates and Jörg Widmann.

During the 2014/15 season, the North Carolina Symphony will welcome David Glover as Associate Conductor. “David’s work in the field of music education makes him an ideal addition to our conducting staff,” said Symphony President & CEO Sandi Macdonald. “We look forward to him working with Music Director Grant Llewellyn to take great music to students across North Carolina.”

Mr. Glover comes to the North Carolina Symphony from the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, where he served for two years as the Assistant Conductor, leading its Discovery, Family, and Side-by-Side Concerts. He has led numerous orchestras including the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, North Czech Philharmonic, Bulgarian Opera in Bourgas, and Hungarian Opera-Cluj. His duties will include conducting education and classical concerts throughout the state as well as performances on the Classical, Pops and Friday Favorites Series in the Triangle.

Symphony Names Scholar-in-Residence

William Robin will be the inaugural North Carolina Symphony Scholar-in-Residence. A critic, scholar, and performer, he is currently assistant editor of the Journal of the Society for American Music, and has written for The New Yorker, the New York Times, and NewMusicBox. He recently authored the liner notes for the North Carolina Symphony’s recording with Zuill Bailey, Britten: Cello Symphony & Sonata.

Established in January 2014, the North Carolina Symphony Scholar-in-Residence will contribute to Symphony program notes, web site blogs, and host pre-concert lectures. The Scholar-in-Residence will also provide context and a platform for deeper understanding of the newer works being presented throughout the season.

Live Recording Planned

Following the Symphony’s successful live recording project of Britten’s Cello Symphony & Sonata on the Telarc audiophile label with the masterful cellist Zuill Bailey, and a promotional live recording of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in partnership with the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources and the North Carolina Department of Commerce, the North Carolina Symphony is planning a live recording of Prokofiev’s Sinfonia concertante, once again with Bailey. The recording will take place in Meymandi Concert Hall.

Concerts include Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos No. 3 and 6, the latter featuring Symphony Principal and Associate Principal violists Samuel Gold and David Marschall, led by Music Director Grant Llewellyn, and Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings, featuring Symphony Principal Horn Rebekah Daley and tenor Nicholas Phan; Llewellyn leading Beethoven’s 7th Symphony; Michael Francis, conducting the magnificent Berlioz work Symphonie fantastique, Llewellyn leading Copland’s Appalachian Spring, plus the program “A Night at the Oscars” and an all Tchaikovsky program, led by Resident Conductor William Henry Curry.

Statewide

Concerts in Chapel Hill, Moore County, Fayetteville, New Bern and Wilmington offer performances that include the same great programs and artists that make up the 2014/15 Raleigh Classical Series and Friday Favorites, as well as some programs and guest artists heard only in those communities.

Pops and Young People’s Concerts

In addition to its outstanding classical series, the North Carolina Symphony will feature an impressive array of Pops and Young People’s Concerts at Meymandi Concert Hall. In the 2014-2015 season, guest artists and programs for Pops include “Louis and Ella,” a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong that features Byron Stripling, trumpet, and vocalist Marva Hicks, the always dynamic band Pink Martini, “Best of Broadway,” featuring Broadway showstoppers by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Anthony Newly, and many more, “Pops Goes Vegas,” a lavish tribute to Las Vegas with conductor Jack Everly, and the iconic films West Side Story and Casablanca, shown on a giant screen with live accompaniment by the Symphony.

Young People’s Concerts pair the Symphony with Magic Circle Mime Co. for Phantoms of the Orchestra, Triangle Youth Ballet for Peter and the Wolf, and Classical Kids Live! for Mozart’s Magnificent Voyage. All Young People’s Concerts take place on Saturday at 1 and 4 p.m. at Meymandi Concert Hall in downtown Raleigh

Ticket Information

For information about subscription options, dates, times and ticket prices, visit the North Carolina Symphony website at www.ncsymphony.org or call North Carolina Symphony Audience Services at 919.733.2750 or toll free 877.627.6724.

Big Band & Vienna
Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2014, 8pm
An evening of Big Band classics and unforgettable melodies from Vienna

Lang Lang
Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015, 7:30pm
Grant Llewellyn, Music Director
Lang Lang, piano
The New York Times raves Lang Lang is the “hottest artist on the classical music planet.” Don’t miss this one-night engagement!

Joshua Bell
Tuesday, May 12, 2015, 7:30pm
Often referred to as the “poet of the violin,” Bell is one of the world’s most celebrated violinists. Enchanting audiences with his breathtaking virtuosity, tone of sheer beauty and charismatic stage presence, this is one event not to be missed.

About the North Carolina Symphony
Founded in 1932, the North Carolina Symphony performs over 175 concerts annually to adults and school children in more than 50 North Carolina counties. An entity of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, the orchestra employs 66 professional musicians, under the artistic leadership of Music Director and Conductor Grant Llewellyn and Resident Conductor William Henry Curry.

Headquartered in downtown Raleigh’s spectacular Meymandi Concert Hall at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts and an outdoor summer venue at Koka Booth Amphitheatre in Cary, N.C., the Symphony performs about 60 concerts annually in the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and Cary metropolitan area. It holds regular concerts in Fayetteville, New Bern, Southern Pines and Wilmington—as well as individual concerts in many other North Carolina communities throughout the year—and conducts one of the most extensive education programs of any U.S. orchestra.